The Homa Files

TakeAway:  Mobile coupons delivered directly  to  smartphones are catching on, spurring impulse purchases. 

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Excerpted from CNBC, “Coupons Via Cellphone: Whipping Up the Impulse Buy,” By Christina Cheddar Bank, October 15, 2009

To date, the concept of receiving coupons on your cell phone has been more theory than practice. This is despite a resurgence in coupon use and an increasing dependence on cell phones.

But with the focus on mobile coupons as a marketing tool on the rise, is the industry heading to an inflection point? A new Harris interactive survey … of more than 2,000 adults … found that 42 percent of those who were between 18 and 34 years old, and 33 percent of those 35 to 44 years old are at least somewhat interested in receiving opt-in alerts on their cell phones for specials at their favorite establishments …

This type of technology is even more impressive when one considers how many purchases consumers make on the fly … 9-in-10 Americans have made an impulse purchase when they were out shopping in a store based on a sale or a special that was going on around where they were … Among adults who own a cell phone, nearly a quarter — some 22 percent — make this type of purchase at least once per week or more often …

1020 Placecast  has designed a system to use digital marketing and mobile devices in an attempt to drive consumers to specific locations.  Using their systems, a restaurant or retailer can send an alert to a customer’s phone whenever the person is nearing its location …

Coupons.com … developed applications for the Apple’s iPhone and other devices to help consumers sort through coupons and pair them with their grocery lists … also trying out a system that allows shoppers to browse through coupon offerings on its Web site, then load the offers on to a key tag. Once at the store, shoppers can wave their key tags over the scanner during checkout in order to get the credit.

Both companies caution this is still early days for these technologies.

However, with the number of smartphone users on the rise … penetration is about 15 percent in the U.S. today (about 40 million phones) … most forecasts call for that number to at least double by the end of 2011 … coupled with the yet untapped interest, there may be significant opportunities for a technology that is simple enough for consumers to understand and appreciate …

Still, at this time, the reality is there is still more buzz about mobile coupons than people actually using these offers. But as retailers look to hone in on how they can improve relationships with their customers it seems the demand for this type of service is there.

Edit by TJS

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Full Article
http://www.cnbc.com/id/33244923

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This entry was posted on October 28, 2009 at 6:41 am and is filed under Mktg - Promotion, Mobile Marketing, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.